Peter and Cathie's 2022 Camino

  Goodbye faithful stick. It's late afternoon here. More than 24 hours since we arrived in Santiago. I haven't adjusted my stick since we left St Jean Pied de Port (where I bought it in 2019) and I found it was jammed in position, fully extended. I can't take it home like that, so I left it with a label attached, leaning against a drainpipe by the cathedral. Two hours later, it was gone. It's travelled the Camino twice and done many other walks with me in the last three years, so time it found a new home. We started the day with a leisurely breakfast, extending over an hour. Breakfasts here at the Parador are absolutely wonderful. I won't go into detail, but we stayed until we could hardly move from our chairs. Walk anywhere and there are wonderful sights to see. We went for a walk. I've been plagued with a swimming-induced partially blocked ear since before we left New Zealand. I thought that since we weren't swimming it wouldn't get any worse, but it h...

  We made it. Walked into the square to kilometre zero at about 12.15pm after a very pretty walk. We were both a little surprised, bemused and disbelieving. It was the perfect day for a walk. A cool eight degrees when we started out, but with clear skies. We were  expecting more pilgrims on the trail, but apart from the odd episode of noisy school groups, we were able to have quite a peaceful walk. This morning's view from Pension Arca. Just an extra note about last night's Pension Arca. As well as the great living space they served a delicious breakfast. I was so pleased to see cereal, fruit and yoghurt that I skipped the toast, pastries, meat and cheese. But winding back to our arrival there yesterday, as I took things out of my suitcase I dropped the little shot glass I bought in Bayonne. Of course it shattered on the tiled floor. Speaking of glassware, one of my favourite beer glasses at home is the Estrella Galicia glass I took home with me in 2019. It's great to have ...

 This is the Way.  A very delightful day today. Last night we slept the sleep of the just - at least we tell ourselves that. Maybe it was the sleep of the righteous, but I think we've sinned (more about that later). Whatever the reason, we got more than 10 hours. Breakfast was late, 7.30am, and since today was short we allowed ourselves to sleep in until 7pm. Breakfast was very good - and quite exclusive. Our hotel was Casona de Nene, casona meaning mansion, so perhaps a step up from an albergue, a casa, a pension, a posada or a hostal, all of which we've been in (we've yet to experience a Parador, that comes tomorrow). The Casona didn't do breakfast, we had to go around the corner to Casa Nene, which only admitted guests of the Casona Nene (other starving pilgrims were turned away). We found Tammy and Patrick and also their friend Thomas, who has been joined by his wife in recent days. All in all, it was noisy enough with the six of us and the breakfast was excellent. ...

The bridge leading into Melide. Today seemed like our final hurdle. We had close to 30km to cover and by now we have a good feeling for what a drag those last few kilometres can be. It didn't work out too badly. On the positive side, we got to bed really early. Breakfast was available from 6am, so we had the alarm set for an early getaway. On the negative side, two French women in the room next to us talked their heads off until midnight. I'd just dozed off when they woke me at 9.15pm. I cursed them and dozed off again, but they must have had a drink or two, as the volume increased and woke me again at 11.15pm. I lay there, self-righteously building myself up to a fit of wild indignation, when I would drape a towel around my young and tender body and bang on their door. The more time went by, the more morally outraged I became. Midnight, I decided, was when I'd confront them. Miraculously, at 11.58pm, they stopped. They don't know how lucky they were. By 5.58am we were ...

Shot of the day - Cathie's image of early-morning shadows through the trees.  If any day can be called routine, today was it. Like well-oiled machines, we woke up, packed, ate breakfast and went on our way about 7.30am, walking steadily for two hours or so at a good speed and covering close to 10km in that time. After that our average pace slowed, as we took a couple of breaks, the first ostensibly for coffee, but really for the toilet, and the second for coffee, food and toilet combined. This man was advertising cheese, apparently a major food group in this region. We're still getting the hang of Spanish food, which seems to consist mainly of carbohydrate in the form of bread or chips, and meat. Cake is included at breakfast, but very little serious fibre or greenery - hence the frequent mention of toilet stops. It's an effort to get some action - coffee helps. Last night we had some very fortifying vegetable soup, which may have helped - we were joined by a couple from Ed...

  More pilgrims on the trail now that we're within the last 100km. Today was one of our best so far. The temperature was good (cool), the surfaces were good and the slopes weren't too vertical. Even with two leisurely coffee stops we managed to keep an average of more than 4km/h. Pancakes with banana and chocolate sauce. We started the day with the best breakfast yet, thanks to Marcela at Casona de Sarria. As well as the usual coffee, juice and toast, she brought out a dish of freshly scrambled eggs, followed by pancakes with hot chocolate sauce. All the little dishes of preserves to put on the toast were home-made. She tried to insist on us having more of everything and we staggered out on to the street absolutely stuffed. It reminded me of a little Monty Python clip, which my brother Philip will recall. I was going to post it here, but it's too disgusting. Pilgrims follow us across the first bridge out of Sarria. We hit the road at about the usual time of 7.30am, prepared...

Pilgrim central - top of the hill in Sarria. Today we arrived in Sarria. To take just one of the many options on offer, we have 113km to go - just five more days. To understand the significance of this: To prove that you've walked the Camino, you can pick up one or two certificates. One certificate certifies that you've done the walk for spiritual reasons, the other just that you've covered the distance. To get these, you must prove you've walked at least 100km. That means Sarria is the starting point. From now on, numbers on the trail will double (or something like that). A small section of the passport showing from St Jean Pied de Port to Astorga. To prove that you've done it, you need to acquire a pilgrim passport and get it stamped every day. Over the last 100km you need to get it stamped twice a day. Cyclists need to complete the last 200km. In checking the Pilgrim Office in Santiago, it seems that 815 pilgrims have already picked up their certificates today, s...